Welcome to Draculino Team — a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school in beautiful Marbella, Spain. We'd love to have you come train with us.
21
Nov 11
Seminar with Draculino & Saying farewell to Thelmo
Last week we had the privilege of hosting none other than Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhaes himself for an evening of seminars, beginning with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and concluding with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).
Draculino
Draculino is literally one of the “founding fathers” of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and has probably produced more champions in his career than any other. Today he lives in Houston, Texas (USA) where he runs the Gracie Barra Houston academy, as well as managing a network of affiliates (ours included) around the world.
A seminar with Draculino is always special, as he has a natural gift for teaching. In the BJJ seminar, we focused on the back position, looking at various ways to transition to the back, and to finish. Every technique he demonstrated was efficient, effective, and something we can immediately incorporate into our toolboxes.
We were also really happy to have in attendance our friends from around Andalucia, including Vinicius (from Marbella), Jose Antonio (from La Linea), Pablo & Luis (from Malaga), Pablo Cabo (also from Malaga) and Nacho (from Tarifa).
A farewell to Thelmo
There was a sad portion of the evening as well, as we learned that our instructor of the past years, Thelmo Calmon, is returning to his home country of Brazil, to reunite with family and pursue a number of opportunities that have arisen for him there.
Thelmo has been dedicated to the club for almost half a decade, and will be surely missed. Fortunately, it looks like he’ll be able to return each July for a visit.
Leadership of the club will now pass to black-belt Matt Henderson, and brown-belt Leo Galati, with instruction assistance from all the brown belts, including Augusto Aloiso (who’s also the director of the gym), Daniel Nagore and Mike Rios.
With the European Championship nine weeks away, there’s no time to rest, so it’s back to work!
19
May 11
Carlos “Sapao” Ban Seminar Tonight!
On Monday, Thelmo casually ended the class by saying, “So a good friend of mine from San Francisco is coming to town. He’s a black belt and will be teaching a seminar.” We all thought, “Ok, cool.” Then he casually added, “Oh, yeah… it’s Sapao!”
CARLOS SAPAO BAN!
This is huge news for the academy! Sapao visited us a few years ago, back when we were training in Puerto Banus, and everybody agreed he was one of the best guest instructors we’ve ever had. Sapao is one of the authentic pioneers of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. When you see those photos from Rio de Janeiro, with Royce Gracie, Rickson Gracie, Helio Gracie, Ryan Gracie, etc. — you’ll usually see Sapao right there in the mix. He’s a legend.
And so we’re super excited to announce a seminar tonight with Sapao, from 7PM to 10PM at Dynamic Training Center. The cost is 30 euros. Don’t miss it!
05
May 11
Growing the team at Draculino Team
Last night we had a great training sessions at Draculino Team Marbella — nearly 20 people! Nacho was up from Draculino Team Tarifa, and in the process of recovering from his knee surgery, he’s coming back strong. Augusto led a killer warmup, as only Augusto can, and then spun off some white belt training, while Thelmo went over a guard pass with the advanced group.
And, of course, the big news — Mikee “Tiburón” Hios IS BACK, tendonitis and all. I took it easy on him rolling, taking his back not finishing him, since we need to make sure he doesn’t get demoralized or anything. Ha! Just kidding — Mike can take year off if he want, and still wipe the map with us!
21
Apr 11
Augusto Aloisio receives his Brown Belt!
Tonight’s training included two exciting events. First, we welcomed newly-crowned World Champion Babak Alimoradian back from Abu Dhabi, and congratulated him on his amazing win, and his new purple belt. Who would ever imagine that right here in little ol’ Marbella, Spain, we’d have a World Champion. Incredible!
Something interesting we learned: When they make gold medals in Abu Dhabi, they go all out — Babak’s included a spinner in the middle with an inscribed image of none other than Jesus Christ himself. We also discovered that the rumored prize of 8,000 barrels of petroleum was not true; turned out it was more like … well, we won’t go there, in case Babak has some creative tax planning in mind.
Anyway, I pointed out to Babak, that I was proud to be able to say that I’ve personally arm-barred a world champion, and then he pointed out that that’s not true; he wasn’t a world champion when I arm-barred him, and that I’ll have to try it now. I tried three times tonight — a triangle, a teepee submission and an armbar — and couldn’t pull off any. Oh well, my quest continues…
In other news, Andalucia Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu pioneer, Augusto Aloisio, (and one of the original members of our club) was awarded the prized brown belt. It was a long time coming, and Augusto really deserved it. He’s been on the winning side of many exciting championship fights both here in Spain and at the Europeans, and we all look forward to seeing him continue to maintain his competitive level and spirit at the brown belt. Congratulations, Augusto — onward now to the Faixa Preta!
Finally, it was good to welcome Sam Hall back to the dojo tonight. I rolled with Sam and noticed a marked improvement since his move to England. He’s now a fourth-degree white, and you can tell he earned his stripes.
I’ll leave you all with a video of tonight’s happenings:
17
Apr 11
Babak Alimoradian is both the European and World Champion!
Having been a 7th ranked NCAA wrestler in the United States back in his youth, Babak Alimoradian started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Draculino Team Marbella just over a year ago. He picked up the sport fast, earning his Blue Belt in January of 2011.
For his first BJJ competition, Babak traveled in January 2011 with the team to Lisbon, Portugal, where he crushed his way through five fights to win the gold medal at the European Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championship, in the Masters Category (age 30 to 34).
With the taste of competition (and winning!) fresh in his mind, he immediately got to work training for the World Championships, in Abu Dhabi. This time, however, there would be no age categories, and Babak would be up against much younger opponents.
After many mornings of privates with Thelmo, many hards nights of training at class, many afternoons of cardio work on the paseo, and having left behind an entire team of banged-up training partners (including seven stitches in my forehead), Babak completed his preparation, and left last week for Abu Dhabi.
Well, the competition is now over, and we’ve got some amazing news to report — Babak won seven fights leading to a gold medal. He is now the blue belt World Champion! Just after the fight, coach Thelmo Calmon gave Babak his well-deserved purple belt.
Here’s the video of his gold medal fight, against a black belt judoka who last participated in the Olympics.
14
Apr 11
Wednesday Night Training and news from Abu Dhabi
We had a great night of training on Wednesday, as we continued Monday’s lessons on basic BJJ strategy, as well as the perfect choke technique. Also, the whole class was stoked to learn Eddie Bravo’s “tee-pee” submission, when a guy caught in a choke tries to defend by hiding his arm.
And in news from the BJJ World Championships in Abu Dhabi, we just learned that Babak won all six fights today, and has advanced to the final round where he’ll fight for the gold medal on Saturday. Amazing performance from Babak!
06
Apr 11
Wednesday Night Training
We had a great training session tonight, with our extended new floorspace filled with nearly 20 students. Babak was training hard in preparation for the world’s in the next two weeks.
And here’s a photo from after class:
05
Apr 11
Babak Alimoradian preparing for the World Championship
Our very own Babak Alimoradian, owner of local adventure company Team Extreme and current Blue Belt Masters European Champion is training hard in preparation to compete in at the World Championship mid-April in Abu Dhabi. He’s been training very hard (good for Babak, bad for the rest of us poor souls), and we believe he’s got a great chance to take Gold Medal. Good luck!
02
Dec 09
New Gym & New Facebook Page
CAMBIO DE GIMNASIO / CHANGE OF GYM
A partir de hoy, 2 Diciembre, empezamos a entrenar en el gimnasio nuevo que se esta montando Augusto, en el edificio a lado de SmallWorld Cafe, cerca del disco de Olivia Valere en la carretera de Istan. El horario es el mismo — 20:30h a 22:00h. Hay un link abajo a una mapa.
Beginning today, December 2, training will take place in a new gym, being setup my Gracie-Barra member Augusto. The gym is in the same building as the SmallWorld Cafe, close to the Olivia Valere disco in the Istan road (in Marbella). Training times are the same — 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Below is a Google map to the location.
Map to the new gym…
NEW FACEBOOK PAGE
A new Facebook Page has been created to help keep everybody informed about Gracie-Barra Marbella, and to announce events. Please visit the page, become a Fan, and let others know about it. Thanks!
16
Sep 09
Mike Rios triumphant at the Don Principe MMA event
On September 11, 2009, the first edition of the Don Principe MMA event took place in La Linea, Spain. Organized by Jose Antonio Merida, of Gracie-Barra La Linea (a.k.a. Cai Club), the event was a great success, and included exciting fights in the disciplines of MMA, grappling and kick boxing.
Local fighter and long-time Gracie-Barra Marbella member, Mike Rios faced off in a grappling match against Crazy Sevilla fighter Alberto Gonzalez. The fight was a rematch of an earlier BJJ match in which Alberto had won. In this fight, however, it was Mike’s night. Months of hard training and preparation paid off, as he won big on points, 14-0.
Congratulations to Mike on the fantastic win for himself and for the club, and to Alberto for a competitive fight!
08
Sep 09
Cai-Club MMA event this Friday in La Linea!
Gracie-Barra Marbella fighters Thelmo Calmon and Mike “Tiborao” Rios have been training hard the past months in preparation for their fights this Friday night at the “Sangre y Casta” MMA event in La Linea, organized by our good friend Jose Antonio Merida, of Gracie-Barra La Linea.
The event starts at 21:30 in the evening, at the Pabellon Don Principe, in La Linea (just next to Gibraltar). Tickets go on sale at 18:00. Doors open at 21:00. Don’t miss it!
More information at:
19
Aug 09
Goodbye, Nabil!
For the past week or so, we’ve had the pleasure of having Nabil Khrissi, of Paris, France, training with us at Gracie-Barra Marbella. Nabil is a very talented brown belt under Master Ricardo de la Riva.
It’s always great to have the opportunity to train with high-level BJJ practitioners from other schools. It was particularly nice having Nabil with us, as, in addition to having a very solid BJJ game (he received his brown belt after only three years!) he’s also a really nice guy, that we all came to consider a new friend.
We’re looking forward to seeing Nabil again here in Marbella, or perhaps at the upcoming ADCC in Barcelona, and the BJJ European Championships next year in Portugal.
31
Jul 09
BJJ Seminar with Roger Gracie black belt, Jude Samuel
Don’t miss this fantastic seminar hosted by our friends at Gracie-Barra La Linea:
- What: BJJ seminar, with Jude Samuel
- Where: Algeciras
- When: Saturday, August 1, 10:30h to 13:30h
- Cost: 15 Euros
- More Info: Cai-Club Website
25
Jun 09
GB Marbella at Closed Fights Demolition
Gracie-Barra Marbella traveled to Málaga a few weeks ago, where two of our members participated in the Closed Fights amateur MMA competition, held at the new gym of our friends Pablo Espejo and Luis Quiñones. Both our fighters, Leo Galati and Mirkko won their bouts, impressively! Check out the videos below:
Leo Galati vs Jose Maria (Closed Fights Demolition) from Matt Henderson on Vimeo.
Mirkko vs Jorge Giner (Closed Fights Demolition) from Matt Henderson on Vimeo.
23
Mar 09
Upcoming Seminars: Yan Cabral & Pablo Cabo
We are excited to announce the following two upcoming seminars:
YAN CABRAL (Saturday, March 28)
This coming Saturday, March 28, at the Demolition Fight Center, in Malaga, Spain, world champion Yan Cabral will hold a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu seminar. Details below:
Who: Yan Cabral
When: Saturday, 28 of March, from 16-19 hrs
Where: Demolition Fight Center, Malaga, Spain
Cost: 30 euros
More information at the Demolition Fight Center website.
PABLO CABO (PALETA) (Wednesday, April 1)
Next Wednesday, Gracie-Barra Marbella veteran Pablo Cabo (Bronze medal finisher at the BJJ world championships) will hold a seminar at Platinum Gym, during which he’ll present a number of the things that he’s learned from the past year living in London, England and training at world champion Roger Gracie’s gym.
Who: Pablo Cabo (Paleta)
When: Wednesday, 1 of April, from 20-21:30 hrs
Where: Platinum Gym (Gracie-Barra Marbella training center), Puerto Banus, Spain
Cost: 10 euros
If you will be attending the Pablo Cabo seminar, please confirm with an email to info@gbmarbella.com . Thanks!